Bush Urges Congress to Ban the Sale of Dangerous Prescription Drugs over the Internet

Although only an estimated 0.1% of prescription drug abusers buy these medications over the internet, George Bush would like to see an end to the internet retailing of dangerous medications.

In his weekly radio address, President George Bush urged
congress to pass legislation regulating the illicit sale of prescription drugs
over the internet.

People may be underestimating the dangers and addictive
potential of these drugs, perceiving them as somehow safer than street level
narcotics. Bush warned, "Unfortunately, many young Americans do not
understand how dangerous abusing medication can be, and in recent years, the
number of Americans who have died from prescription drug overdoses has
increased."

In his radio address, Bush spoke of Ryan Haight as an
example of the dangers of internet medications. Haight, a California teen, died after overdosing on
prescription medications he had ordered from the internet. The doctor who
filled his prescription never saw Haight, and had previously served prison time
for illegal prescribing practices.

Bush asked congress to act to, "prevent tragedies like
this from happening in the future." He hopes to see legislation that would
ban the internet sale of dangerous prescription medications.

SAMSHA, the federal Govt.'s primary agency for substance
abuse and addiction, has released studies that estimate that only a very minute
percentage of prescription drug abusers source their medications over the
internet - estimating 0.1%. Most drug users, they report, obtain these drugs
from relatives or friends, at the street level, or through practices such as
doctor shopping (visiting numerous doctors to obtain multiple prescriptions).

Estimates from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health have
7 million Americans abusing prescription medications for non medical reasons.